Attend in person or onlineSeptember 4—6, 2023Campinas, Brazil

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The venue

The Agronomical Institute of Campinas (IAC) generates technological packages that contribute towards sustainable agricultural production, the generation of high-quality products, and socioeconomic development.

Foodstuffs and other products for people's everyday needs come from the land.

Brazilians’ main meals are mostly made from agricultural products. The small black coffee, sugar, bread, cake, and fruit that are part of breakfast come from the land. At lunch, rice, beans, oil, vegetables, and herbs for seasoning the dishes are also farm products. The same holds true for dinner and snacks. Milk, butter, cheese, and meat equally come from the land, not forgetting the animals that produce these foodstuffs feed on corn, soybean, and forage plants. Chocolate is made from cocoa beans! Clothing is made from cotton. The car uses ethanol and rubber. Agricultural products are an integral part of the raw materials of a variety of products present in daily activities.

The IAC is a division of the São Paulo State Secretariat of Agriculture and Supply, located in Campinas, which has been continuously engaged in research on these areas since 1887. Based in Campinas, the IAC generates technologies that benefit agriculture in São Paulo and Brazil.

The results include 1,070 cultivars from 99 species, in addition to technological packages that involve all stages from planting to post-harvest, including studies on soil, climate, pests, diseases, safety, and chemical control efficiency.

Agronomic science generates technologies that contribute towards improving the productivity of the fields and the quality of the products, with a reduction in production costs and environmental impact. Whenever the IAC celebrates a new result, the agricultural sector has at its disposal technologies that fully meet the needs of agroindustry and consumer requirements.

The IAC is a reference in conventional genetic enhancement of agricultural plants and, at the same time, takes part in research programmes focused on genome, transgenics, and cisgenics and, more recently, through the edition of genomes and interference RNA, in a partnership with national and international networks.

Scientific research requires competitiveness, credibility, responsibility, and creativity. These attributes are an integral part of IAC's history, which, though existing for over a century, keeps updated and integrated with the main agronomic science networks in Brazil and the world.

Campinas, SP, Brazil

The area where the city of Campinas is located today has just over 260 years of colonial/imperial/republican history and thousands of years of indigenous history.

In the landmarks of its colonial formation, the city of Campinas emerged in the first half of the 18th century as a rural district of Vila de Jundiaí. Located on the margins of a trail opened by Paulistas from Planalto de Piratininga between 1721 and 1730 (a trail that headed towards the recently discovered mines of the Goiases), the settlement of the "Rural District of Mato Grosso" began with the installation of a troopers' resting place near the "Goiases Road”.

In the same period (second half of the 18th century), another economic, political, and social dynamic arose in the region, associated with the arrival of farmers from Itú, Porto Feliz, and Taubaté, among others. These farmers were looking for land to install sugar cane plantations and sugar mills, using slave labor for this purpose. The coffee plantations, in turn, were born inside the sugar cane farms, propelling in a short time a new cycle of development of the city. Still in this period, the city began to experience an intense course of "modernization" of its means of transportation, production, and life, with several aspects of these transformations yet alive in the city's memory.

Along this modernization process, the city began to concentrate a more significant population, consisting of migrants and immigrants from various regions of the state, the country, and the world, who arrived in Campinas attracted by the installation of a new productive park (composed of factories, agribusinesses, and various commercial establishments). Between the 1930s and 1940s, therefore, the city of Campinas began to experience a new historical moment, marked by migration and the multiplication of neighborhoods in the vicinity of factories, establishments, and major highways being implemented - Via Anhanguera, (1948), Rodovia Bandeirantes (1979) and Rodovia Santos Dumont, (1980s).

Nowadays, Campinas occupies an area of 801 km² and has a population of approximately 1 million inhabitants and hundreds of neighborhoods. Such economic and social vigor, brought about, especially by the expansion of its working population, has allowed Campinas to constitute itself as one of the poles of the metropolitan region of São Paulo, formed by 19 cities and an estimated population of 2.33 million inhabitants (6.31% of the population of the State).

The University

USP FZEA (UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO — FACULDADE DE ZOOTECNIA E ENGENHARIA DE ALIMENTOS)

The Faculty of Zootechnics and Food Engineering's mission is to offer society high-quality teaching, research, extension, and services in animal and food production, strongly linked to agribusiness in Brazil, especially in the State of São Paulo.

Located on the Fernando Costa Campus (USP/Pirassununga), the Faculty of Zootechnics and Food Engineering - FZEA/USP was created by USP Resolution No. 3946 of July 3, 1992, and, as of 1993, became responsible for offering the undergraduate course in Zootechnics, which had been implemented by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics in 1978. As of 2001, it started to offer an evening undergraduate course in Food Engineering. In May 2003, USP's University Council approved the daytime Food Engineering course, with 50 vacancies, as well as the expansion of the number of vacancies of the respective night course, from 40 to 50 vacancies. With the growing need for qualification to face the competitive globalized economy, FZEA decided to structure a post-graduation course in Zootechnics, in the area of Animal Quality and Productivity, with a master’s degree, as of 1994, and also with a PhD degree, as of 2001. As of 2009, FZEA started offering Biosystems Engineering (first one in Latin America) and Veterinary Medicine, in addition to master’s and PhD courses in Food Engineering, in the area of Food Engineering Sciences. In 2009 with the implementation of the new courses, FZEA/USP began offering 260 annual openings in undergraduate courses. With the significant increase of teachers in FZEA, due to the implementation of new undergraduate courses, many newly hired teachers were eager to enter graduate studies, and the existing programs, in most cases, were not appropriate to the teachers' areas of interest. Thus, committees were created to plan, request, and implement new graduate programs in FZEA, including a professional master’s degree, highly encouraged by CAPES, and supported by USP.

Since its creation, this unit of USP aims to offer teaching, research, and extension services to the community with high quality, having invested in the training of a high-level faculty.

National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA)

The National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA) develops its activity as a State Laboratory of the health sector, National Reference Laboratory and National Health Observatory. Its main mission is to contribute to gains in public health, either on the laboratory dimension or through specialized health care, to provide the Ministry of Health with the adequate data for knowledge-based decision-making essential to define the national health policy, to follow the guidelines defined by the Ministry of Health and to answer the questions raised by the scientific community and the society.

INSA ensures its mission through research and technological development, epidemiological and health services research, laboratory quality assurance through external evaluation, diffusion of scientific culture, fostering capacities, knowledge, and skills through training programs and by providing specialized services in several domains including the prevention of genetic diseases. INSA develops several R&D activities on the health sciences domain, with a special focus on epidemiology, environmental health, food and nutrition, genetics, proteomics, health services, infectious diseases, chronic diseases, and health promotion.

The past editions of the International Conference on Food Contaminants

In 2015, INSA organized the inaugural edition of the International Conference on Food Contaminants (ICFC 2015), which was held in Lisbon, Portugal. The main goal of this conference was to gather research scientists, health and food professionals, regulatory entities, industry, and students that were involved in food safety, especially in the ongoing hot topic of chemical mixtures — Chemical mixtures and impact on human health. The deliberations of this conference were published by INSA (http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/3214).

In 2017, following an invitation from INSA, the University of Minho organized the ICFC 2017 on July 13 and 14, in Braga, Portugal. This conference, organized in close collaboration with INSA, was focused on another ongoing hot topic concerning climate change and its impact on food safety and human health – Climate changes and food safety: Challenges in the near future. The Book of Abstracts was published by the University of Minho (http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/4882).

In 2019, following an invitation from INSA, the University of Aveiro organized the ICFC 2019 on September 26 and 27, in Aveiro, Portugal. This conference, organized in close collaboration with INSA, was focused on another ongoing hot topic — challenges on risk assessment. The Book of Abstracts was published by INSA (http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/7166).

In 2021, INSA organized the 4^th International Conference on Food Contaminants in virtual mode, on September 27 and 28. This conference was focused on another ongoing hot topic — early-life exposure. The book of Abstracts was published by INSA (http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/7795).

Together, these four previous conferences welcomed more than 400 participants in a very productive scientific atmosphere, promoting the establishment of scientific networking.